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Partisan Bias in Factual Beliefs about Politics

John G. Bullock, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin, USA, john.bullock@utexas.edu
Alan S. Gerber, Department of Political Science, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University, USA, alan.gerber@yale.edu
Seth J. Hill, Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, USA, sjhill@ucsd.edu
Gregory A. Huber, Department of Political Science, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University, gregory.huber@yale.edu

5. Expressive Survey Response and the Relationship Between Facts and Votes

6. Discussion and Conclusion

Appendix: A Model of Expressive Survey Response

References

Abstract

Partisanship seems to affect factual beliefs about politics. For example, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say that the deficit rose during the Clinton administration; Democrats are more likely to say that inflation rose under Reagan. What remains unclear is whether such patterns reflect differing beliefs among partisans or instead reflect a desire to praise one party or criticize another. To shed light on this question, we present a model of survey response in the presence of partisan cheerleading and payments for correct and "don't know" responses. We design two experiments based on the model's implications. The experiments show that small payments for correct and "don't know" answers sharply diminish the gap between Democrats and Republicans in responses to "partisan" factual questions. Our conclusion is that the apparent gulf in factual beliefs between members of different parties may be more illusory than real. The experiments also bolster and extend a major finding about political knowledge in America: we show (as others have) that Americans know little about politics, but we also show that they often recognize their own lack of knowledge.